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Rating: 
Summary: To Hell with this
Review: Dreadful. It is almost a wonder Mittlemann fought for Germany and wound up living in England and not the Soviet Union, for there is no mistaking his sympathies are with Marx and Lenin. Too often the book is punctuated with long speeches given by soulful Soviets on the merits of Bolshevism, all of which seems dated and silly in today's light. It certainly raises the question when this book was written, because few if any today would be caught singing the praises of the corrupt and inept politburo. Curiously as well, there is little fellowship that Mittlemann feels to the men of his unit, which is atypical for those who walked in harm's way. To Mittlemann the Wehrmacht stumbles and bumbles its away to annihilation, and it is only through his cunning and luck that he manages to make it through. Oddly the reader is left with no feelings for him. Like Hans Schmidt's SS Panzergrenadier, this is a frivolous polemic masking as a memoir
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Summary: Fantastic met henry yesterday in history lesson
Review: Hi! i just had a talk from henry metelmann in my history lesson on his experiences and this book is fantastic from a fantastic and great person!
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Summary: To Hell with this
Review: I found that this was a very intersting look at a German soldiers experiances throughout ww2. I found it very informative as well as entertaining. This was a book that kept my interest through out the entire time it took for me to read it.
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Summary: Save your money
Review: I noticed quite early in reading this that the stories were contrived. As someone else mentioned in another review this book reads totally unlike ANY war memoirs I have ever read. It seems to be simply a disjointed and poorly written collection of fictional scenes to make the point that war is bad and Germans did lots of bad things to the innocent Russian people. That's fine as far as it goes but it shouldn't be passed off as a non-fiction book about WWII.
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Summary: An Insight into Hell
Review: I was gripped by this honest and brutal account of the horror of war. Should we be shocked that a German 'grunt' might show compassion? Must all have been raving SS loonies? I too was reminded of The Forgotten Soldier. I commend this book to any WW2 scholar.
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Summary: An Insight into Hell
Review: I was gripped by this honest and brutal account of the horror of war. Should we be shocked that a German 'grunt' might show compassion? Must all have been raving SS loonies? I too was reminded of The Forgotten Soldier. I commend this book to any WW2 scholar.
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Summary: An Excellent Book...
Review: Metelmann's personal experiences of the war make this book different from other accounts.
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Summary: Stear clear of this one.
Review: This book is a strange "war memoir" that anyone familiar with the WWII Eastern Front will find puzzling.Mr. Metelmann claims to be a veteran of the 22nd Panzer Div. who went to the eastern front in the winter of 41/42. The author's story begins at childhood, then moves to his training and service in the Wehrmacht on the eastern front,fighting and surrendering to the Americans, and finishes in the immediate post-war situation. This book gives the reader little information about the war on the eastern front except for his contact with soviet soldiers and civilians. Despite the premise of the book (i.e. as a war memoir), the author spends little time on his supposed combat experience. He doesn't talk about his weapons or the vehicles he drove (he claims to have been a panzer driver). He doesn't talk about the types of tanks he drove, their characteristics, or being retrained for new models (tank types were upgraded throughout the war on all sides). The author, unlike all other war memoirs (axis and allied) that I have read, does not even name his comrades. In fact, he hardly mentions them and then only with first names. This seems strange in light of the strong bonds communicated in books as diverse as "Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer and "With The Old Breed" by American Marine E.B. Sledge. He seems to spend an inordinate amount of time with soviets. All Soviet soldiers are portrayed as heroic figures who die making political speeches about the glories of marxism. Every soviet civilian he comes upon vows they will defeat the evil facists while also making boring political speeches about Lennin and the communist cause. I find it odd that he never ran into anyone in the Ukraine that welcomed the German invasion since the Soviets had starved millions there. He never runs into a russian civilian who curses the collectivization that destroyed the lives of millions and sent millions to the gulags. He never speaks to a soviet soldier who was forced into suicidal attacks by commissars and NKVD troops. Curious. His brief overviews of combat actions always extol the wily Soviets who always seem to get the better of the Germans whose officers are usually portrayed as mindless Prussian aristocrats who can think of nothing other than costly frontal assaults. This seems to be exactly the opposite of all other historical analyses of German vs. Soviet performance. Curious. Strangely enough, he seems to omit all of 1943! He seems to go from the retreat after Stalingrad in the winter of 42/43 directly to the retreat after Bagration in the winter of 44/45! He does not mention participating in Manstein's counterstroke at Kharkov in spring 43 even though he certainly would have taken part, given that he was part of Army Group South. He makes no mention of Citadel except to mention that an officer he served under will finally die in the battle. Curious. His encounters with soviet soldiers and civilians seem almost scripted, like bad Soviet propaganda. Although he accurately portrays the brutality of the war on the eastern front with regard to the treatment of civilians by the Germans (but, strangely enough, not by the Soviets), there's very little else here to be commended. In short, this is a book which has very little useful historical information to offer. This book would not be reccommended by anyone who knows anything about the eastern front and I certainly would give it zero stars if I could. Buy "Forgotten Soldier" instead.
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Summary: A Wonderful book
Review: What an amazing life Henry Metelmann led. He had more life changing experiences between the ages of 18-23 than most of us do in a lifetime. This book really makes you appreciate what soft and pampered lifestyles we lead today. This is a story of War - from the Human perspective. I started out reading Beevors 'Stalingrad' but couldn't get into it as it was just an historical account. But this book transports you to the frozen wastes of WWII Russia like no other I've read. It's the day to day experiences of one Panzer driver on the Eastern Front who miraculously survived. I couldn't help thinking at many a time during the book that Henry must have had a Guardian Angel watching over him. The humour of the average German soldier shines through and in many places is very amusing indeed. Henry certainly has a likeable self-deprecating humour. Also as a Westerner I found that the Russian's came across as very human and deeply patriotic people. On many occasions though I did think that Henry lacked compassion, such as when he burned the cottage down that was full of disposessed people, leaving them to freeze and starve in the snow. But then it's easy for me to judge from the comfort of my armchair. This book even managed to shock me with the unexpected demise of 'Hauptmann Zet'. Even more amazing was that immediately after the War he settled in Britain and spent the rest of his life there. A nation that had just been locked in mortal combat with his own Germany. He must have suffered a lot of prejudice in Britain, especially in the years immediately following the War. But All in all a superb, enlightening book.
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